An external load on a latch, for example, caused by the weight of snow on a decklid, can sometimes prevent the ratchet from moving to the open position. In this situation, it is possible for the pawl to move to the open position, which can subsequently result in a failure of the latching operation, as the ratchet and pawl do not move in unison.
In order to avoid such problems, it is known to incorporate a “snow load” lever in the latch, which keeps the pawl in the released position until such time as the ratchet completes its opening movement. In the typical solution, the snowload lever acts directly on the pawl. However, this is problematic in that the mechanism may be activated when the decklid is slammed, whereby the pawl is kept in the open position whilst the ratchet rebounds.
One solution that avoids some of the problems of a directly coupled snowload lever is the use of a two-part pawl construction. Examples of such solutions are found in WO 03/054332 published 3 Jul. 2003 and in DE 3406116 published 22 Aug. 1985. However, the two-part pawl construction increases the number of components required.
A different solution is desired.